Abstract
The genus Bifidobacterium are extensively used as probiotics in food applications, for their potential role to combat different lifestyle diseases. This has necessitated a great importance for their species, sub-species and even at the strain level characterization. In the present study, attempts have been made to target repetitive DNA element-based BOX-PCR fingerprinting to judge its potential in taxonomic discrimination of Bifidobacterium species. The BOXA1R primer-based repetitive PCR amplified products were analysed for 93 identified bifidobacterial isolates collected from diverse sources of human and animal origin along with 12 DSMZ procured standard reference strains. Dendrograms constructed from the fingerprint patterns of BOX-PCR differentiated all the isolated strains into 10 different groups, grouped with one standard reference isolates and successfully discriminated all isolates up to subspecies level as identified. The BOX-PCR method used in this study effectively resolved the taxonomic status and differentiated all 93 bifidobacterial species isolated from diverse faecal origins of human and animal samples.